I publish periodic charts showing my weight maintenance results to date.1 This is largely to give myself some accountability. I've found maintenance to be much more difficult than loosing weight. Motivation is difficult and there is often a bit of hunger towards the end of the day.
The good part is I'm learning quite a bit about metabolism and hunger mechanisms and am doing experiments to see what works for me. The experiments are very slow by nature as it is difficult to sort out the feedback signals, but I have learned that (a) breakfasts are essential, (b) a good amount of protein for breakfast seems to be essential, (c) dramatically reducing fat alone increases my food cravings. This is leading to some curious breakfasts that seem more like light dinners and (d) periodic treats are essential to prevent long term cravings.
I suspect that what I'm learning is far from universal - quite a bit of individual tailoring will be required. For me exercise is also important - not so much for actual weight control as the amount of exercise necessary for modest weight change is large compared to food intake - but for overall health as well as what appears to be a handle on hunger feedback. If I exercise a huge amount at high intensity, I tend to be very hungry, but moderate exercise appears to leave me less hungry that very low levels of activity. It makes you wonder about possible mechanisms.
For those who are interested, here is my note on the technique I used for losing weight in the first place as well as the beginning of the maintenance phase. There weren't any silver bullets, and I assume that will be true for everyone. I think a case can be made that the diet industry - as it lacks focus on maintenance - is something of an expensive scam.
Update October 15, 2012
I'm still tracking my weight, but it can be very difficult. The exercise continues as does the coaching from my height unchallenged friend. For diet I've experimented with protein, fat and carbohydrates and find generally I'm happiest with about 20 to 25% protein and about 20% fat with most of it being unsaturated. Allowing myself a daily treat or two is critically important. Part of this is easy as I like fresh fruit and I eat about an ounce of tree nuts a day along with a bit of dark chocolate. There is some art as to when you do this. But every now and again - for me perhaps twice a week - I have some ice cream. If I'm in the city I visit a good gelato shop. At home I sometimes have some Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Frozen Yogurt (only a small amount of unsaturated fat). But there are those times - at least twice a month - where something exceptional is required. This can be NYC gelato or some super premium ice cream. Recently I had the best I've had in my life: Jeny's Splendid.
OMG this is wonderful ice cream!!
It is very expensive at $11 a pint at our local Kings. I can justify it by only having half a pint and sharing the rest a couple of time a month. The quality is completely worth it and this will help me maintain my weight - a legitimate part of my longterm weight maintenance program.
Treats like Jeni's make this so much easier!
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1 For the record I started out around 220 pounds and am a shade over 6'1. The recommended weight target from my family physician is shown in light green. He is impressed that I was able to make the target and also suggested that, based on common experience, that one can only keep on target is through constant maintenance.
Oddly a lot of people feel I've lost too much weight. But relative to 1950 norms along with some more recent European norms I'm quite average at this point. It may be the American perception of average has moved with increasing average weight.
Standard height/weight charts are not representative for all people. My son, the same height as me, wears size 30-32 jeans, while I comfortably fit into size 34 jeans when my weight was down to 158 pounds, less than he weighs. Of course muscle mass makes a big difference. He can do one-handed pushups and triathlons, while it is an effort for me to just lie down on the floor. No amount of exercise or dieting will reduce my pelvis and hip bone structure to the same size as my son's. If a person's body has bigger bone structure and is more muscular, then a normal weight could easily be significantly above average, and if a person's nickname is slat, his normal weight may well be below average. I do believe that a person's normal weight is his setpoint, determined primarily by how much he exercises and how much he eats. Of course there are various little factors that will tweak a setpoint. My easy setpoint, when exercising and eating as I should, is around 165 lb. My energetic setpoint that I had maintained for many years was around 160 lb. And my current lazy setpoint is around 170 lb., the result of too little exercise and too much eating.
I don't need scales or a doctor to tell me my weight. I have two sets of jeans, size 34 and size 36. When my weight is in the range it should be, I fit into size 34, otherwise I fit into size 36. Now my fingers are skinny from too much pounding of the keyboard, and my butt it fat from too much sitting behind the computer...
Posted by: Roger | June 15, 2012 at 13:49